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OUR VISUAL EDUCATION PROBLEM 



Just now, here in California, we are in the midst of a movement 
vital" to the educational and allied institutions, that of educating through 
visual aids. 

An apt illustration of this need we find in "The Survey" of Septem- 
ber 6. 1913, "A small domestic animal twelve or fifteen inches long 
and nine inches high — four 'legs ending in sharp claws — body covered 
with long hair — rounded head— ears near top of head — whiskers — long 
tail. 




WORD PICTURE OF A CAT 

"If you should take a pencil and try to draw the animal which this 
description puts into your mind, you would be quite likely to get some- 
thing like the sketch. * * * This is the image which the words 
conjured up before a member of The Survey staflf. The description was 
intended for that of a cat, but the artist had not been told this. 

"CruKle as the description is, it is perhaps no more so than many 
of the attempts to put conceptions into the minds of children by words 
alone." Leslie's VVeekly, Sept. 19. 1912. quotes Mr. Thomas Edison, 
where speaking of the training of a child he says: "Then when it grows 
old enough to go to school, we teach it twenty-six arbitrary characters 
and afterwards show it how to group these characters into words. Later 
on. we attempt to show the more mature child something of nature, 
literature, arithmetic, art, science, all through an agglomeration of words 
which, if well remembered, appeal only to the ear and intellect. No 
wonder the processes of education are slow. 

"For the sake of argument, let us suppose that the young child just 
learning to spell cat, dog, had never seen an animal. How could an 
intelligent concept of a cat or dog be conveyed to that childish mind? 
Draw a picture of it, you say? Precisely." 

For years we have recognized the value of visual instruction. It 
has become the basis for kindergarten work; practically all the text 
books are illustrated; constantly we use maps, charts, models, specimens, 
and photographs; not a well equipped school is without photographs, a 
stereopticon, or an opaque projector; there is no longer an attempt 
to teach science without a laboratory, or manual arts without a shop. 
Besides all this, there are the continual excursions for science classes, 
or those to the factory, harbor or farm; there are the theatre trips to 



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VISUAL EDUCATION 






see the great dramas, the days in the museums when these are accessible, 
and so on, without end. 

And where all this observation accompanies regular class work what 
a wealth of exactness it lends to the subject! For what almost endless 
reasoning does this definiteness form a basis! What worlds open up to 
the imagination! And how much more real does the student's life work 
loom up before him when he is familiar with its details! Is there any- 
one who would do away with this rich foundation for the development of 
our young people? Is there anything to take its place? How many 
of our ideas or thoughts are possible without an accompanying mental 
picture? 

With a combination of stereopticon slides and photographs for 
opaque projection (material already put at the disposal of its schools 
by New York State) and the motion picture for living scenes "the only 
true 'Esperanto' that all of every class and tongue can understand," the 
efficiency of our schools should increase many fold. 

Through the motion picture this age gives us the benefit of an agency 
that can reproduce the minutest detail; that can patiently watch the de- 
velopment of the plant from the planting of the seed to the opening of 
a blossom and reproduce it in a few minutes; that with its lightning 
glance can record the course of a bullet and show it to us on the screen 
as it slowly winds and twists its way along. Through its agency we can 
see the greatest plays, can watch the ancients in their daily life, can 
follow the intricacies of the most complicated machine, can observe 
movements of planets through the world's greatest telescopes, or can 
study the movements of the microscopic organism. 

However, the utility of film and slide is so generally recognized, that 
it is unnecessary to emphasize it further. Our greatest educators have 
already endorsed their use and while many schools and practicallj' all 
the colleges use the stereopticon, hundreds of both are already doing 
more or less regular work with motion picture machines. 

Institutions such as Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Col- 
lege, Cornell University, University of Minnesota and Syracuse Univer- 
sity are using the motion picture, although as yet not systematically. In 
its report on "Motion Pictures as an Aid to Education," June 30, 1913, 
the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, says: "A canvass 
was made a short while ago by a New York daily newspaper of thousands 
of schools, colleges, and other institutions of learning throughout the 
United States. It was found that the institutions were nearly unani- 
mously in favor of teaching by cinematography; and the prediction was 
made by most of them that the day was close at hand when they would 
all consider the cinematograph projector and film as an indispensable 
part of their equipment." 

In order to meet this great need, as we said before, practically all 
well equipped schools, even the smaller ones, have stereopticons, pro- 
jectors of opaque objects such as photographs, or motion picture 
machines. 

These latter have reached a very high standard. No longer is there 
the injurious flicker that formerly proved so objectionable. While the 
price of the equipment for a large auditorium is still fairly high, there 
are several small machines connecting with incandescent light sockets 
or using acetylene gas. needing no booths, and still giving a satisfactory 
picture of sufficient size for a room seating from one hundred to one 
hundred and fifty. Most of these small machines are so arranged that 
they can be stopped at any time, permitting the picture to be used as a 



VISUAL EDUCATION 



still picture in place of a stereopticon. Because of their safety and 
simplicity, they would not only be invaluable in the class room, 
but particularly useful in the rural districts. They retail regularly at 
$75 to $150, and considerable discounts are allowed to educational 
and religious institutions — especially good rates where there is co-opera- 
tive buying. 

The objection that there is danger from fire, has been satisfactorily 
answered in the Bureau of Education report of the Department of the 
Interior. "In the 1912 report of the fire marshal for the State of New 
York 8,165 fires were reported, of which only nine were said to have been 
caused by moving picture machines. Every reputable machine today 
« made fireproof. Either the Powers Cameragraph, the Edison KinetL 
scope, the Motiograph or the Simplex could be used in the midst ot 
the audience with perfect safety." The Bureau of Education report was 
written almost two years ago and the fire marshal's report referred to 
was over two vears ago. Since then there have been a number of im- 
provements so that now a machine is almost "fool proof." Practically 
any bright high school junior or senior can easily learn to operate w 
machine successfully under the supervision of the science teachers or 
school engineer 

Every year thousands of dollars are being spent for the purchase of 
lantern slides and photographs or the rental of films, and of this expendi- 
ture a great percentage is waste. This point is illustrated in the science 
department of one of our high schools. It owns two thousand slides rep- 
resenting a value of over fifteen hundred dollars. This department needs 
two thousand other slides, but can not get the appropriation yet. Still 
these slides are used on the average but four times a year and for three 
days at a time. Out of one hundred and sixty seven actual school days, 
each slide is in use twelve and lying idle one hundred and fifty-five! 
What business house could stand such inefficiency? And while these 
slides are idle, the neighboring school is trying to get its school board 
to purchase a duplicate set for its science work, while it has, perhaps, two 
thousand slides in history or commercial work that the first school is 
still struggling along without. 

To solve this problem, in New York State, the Department of Educa- 
tion Division of Visual Instruction has gathered at a central point thou- 
sands of visual aids, classified and cared for by experts, which are lent 
to the educational and allied institutions of the State for short periods 
of time. By careful scheduling, these aids are kept busy a great part of 
the time, so that with the same expenditure that would otherwise be 
insufficient, all schools may get really all they need. While before, only 
the big city schools could afford to use slides, now the rural schools can 
use them not only for class work but as the basis for rural social center 
work. Last year the total number of slides shown through this depart- 
ment reached over 220,000. 

There is not, as sometimes claimed, a dearth of available material 
among the regularly produced pictures. It is true that almost any film 
exchange manager will say that there are practically no educational 
films to be secured, and the list he produces will include but a few 
scientific films, one or two industrials, and perhaps a few biological sub- 
jects. However, his idea of the paucity of material is due largely to the 
fact that he has not a complete concept<ion of what constitutes an educa- 
tional film. Besides these regular commercial films, the University of 
Wisconsin, Extension Division, has so far secured seventy-six reels of 
films and fifteen thousand lantern slides, which it allows the schools of 



VISUAL EDUCATION 



the state to use and which they are willing to exchange with combina- 
tions of schools outside the state. There has been formed a "Bureau 
of Commercial Economics," maintained by the great industries of the 
country, which lends to schools and clubs over a hundred reels of films, 
besides many slides — all devoid of advertising — to guide the American 
youth in selecting his life vocation. Many of the big industries have 
made films which they will gladly lend or give for school use. Already 
the loan of nearly one hundred and fifty reels has been offered the 
schools of California, while the number of slides available is almost 
without number. Besides these, films and slides may be borrowed from 
various government departments. 

The Visual Education Association of California is a co-operative union 
of the schools, colleges, associations, and the religious and philanthropic 
institutions of California for the promoting of visual education. It 
already has a card catalog, where from thousands of films produced, 
hundreds of good educational pictures have been selected and listed. 
These are carefully classified from the school point of view. In making 
the catalog practically all films produced since the industry started have 
been considered. The list is being kept up to date so that the information 
will be available for any movement that may be made. 

In looking over the films listed, there are evident gaps which must 
be filled before satisfactory and complete courses can be arranged in 
some subjects; but with the help of slides to fill in the gaps, it would 
be possible at once to arrange as much as a period a week for reviewing 
the text book work in at least half a dozen courses, and a great deal of 
help would be available for a dozen others. 

The problems in the way of systematic and regular use of films 
then are chiefly five in number: (1) to get the available material where 
it can be used; (2) to get it when wanted; (3) to have it properly 
edited; (4) to fill in the gaps with new films and (5) to pay for it. 

Any desirable film in the United States or abroad can be leased if 
there is sufhcient demand to justify the exchange in ordering it, or if 
there is a co-operative organization it can purchase prints. The film 
exchange would require contracts covering a certain amount of use, 
before ordering any films that could not be used in the regular theatre. 
Were the films of such a nature that they could be used commercially, 
a concerted demand by the schools would be sufficient. Much the better 
way, however, would be to buy copies of all stock films that could be 
used regularly in courses in a number of schools. Many of these can 
be obtained from the over-produced stock of the manufacturers at ex- 
ceedingly low prices. Besides the methods mentioned, manj'- films and 
slides can be acquired by a co-operative organization through loan or 
gift from other similar organizations or from the various big industrial 
concerns of the country as pointed out above. In any case the films 
must be brought to one or more central distributing points from which 
they can be borrowed by the exhibiting institutions. 

It will be particularly necessary to have these distributing points 
near to the users, so that time will not be lost in shipping and that the 
films may be available when wanted. Often a picture can be used in 
two or three places the same day if a proper schedule is arranged. When 
unnecessary delays occur, the practically simultaneous use of the aids 
by several institutions becomes impossible and pictures have to be taken 
when they are available rather than when they are needed. It would 
hardly pay to show a picture of the amoeba when the class was studying 
the butterfly. Such a film would be an interruption rather than an aid. 



VISUAL EDUCATION 



With efficient centralized service, a number of organizations can be 
served practically at once. The county free libraries could serve excel- 
lently as such distributing points with their present machinery for 
reaching the various schools. 

In order to make an educational film "interesting" the manufacturers 
usually put it out in 300 ft. to 700 ft. pieces, finishing out the reel of 
1000 ft. with a comedy or, at least, with some unrelated subject. Thus 
we find "With President Taft and His Cabinet in Washington" attached 
to "Katzenjammer Kids Number 2." The exchanges are perfectly willing 
to allow the school representatives to edit these films, rearranging them 
and cutting out any objectionable portions, if they can be assured that 
such changes will meet the requirements of a considerable number of 
prospective users. 

Because of the unorganized nature of this new industry, few manu- 
facturers have known just what the others were making. As a result, 
there is frequently quite a choice of films to be had on a special subject 
while a number of very important pictures needed in a course have never 
been produced. The manufacturers are willing to make these under the 
coinpetent stipervision of educators, if the demand represents enough 
schools to make them feel it is worth while. Few of them care to leave 
the exceedingly well-paying commercial work to make pictures they do 
not understand, to meet a demand whose nature they do not know. 
Besides these gaps that can be filled by the manufacturers, most school 
subjects can be very well and inexpensively made by the educators 
themselves. 

Whether it be slides from 50 cents to $1.00 each, or motion picture 
films at $25 or $50 for over-produced stock, or $50 to $150 for new, few 
schools use the material for more than two or three times a year. The 
original cost of a complete supply, the expense of proper handling and 
the cost of securing exj^ert help and advice when needed would bar all 
of the material from the schools where we have seen it is really indis- 
pensable for efficient education. However, we have solved such a 
problem before and we have our city, county and state libraries to 
make available reference books that no schools alone could afiford. 

After making a careful study of all phases of the question, the 
Visual Education Association recommends that we profit by the example 
of New York State and the University of Wisconsin and establish a 
State Bureau of Visual Education. Such a bureau could be under the 
State Board of Education or the University Extension Division, and 
could co-operate with local schools or county schools so far as possible. 
It could acquire or lease lantern slides, photographs and films without 
cost to the schools; it could issue bulletins of useful information and 
suggestions; it could keep an up-to-date catalog of all possibly available 
material and arrange it into general syllabi; it could be an information 
bureau where expert advice could be given educational institutions with- 
out cost; and by buying in large quantities, it could furnish all necessary 
supplies at even less than the regular wholesale prices. A service depart- 
ment could be established where clean drama and comedy films could be 
censored, leased, and supplied at cost to schools, rural social and 
civic centers wishing them, for general entertainments. 

At present, the larger schools are using what material the existing 
handicaps will permit and the smaller schools are looking longingly on. 
For the one, there is needless duplication and limited material, for the 
other there is no material at all. A centralized agency can save this 
needless duplication and at the same time give all institutions large and 



VISUAL EDUCATION 



small alike, the aids that they so much need. At present, in most 
cases, the material is not entirely satisfactory, because a single school 
with its small demand can not insist that the commercial interests give 
it the exact subjects it needs. Can we afford to delay action? Are the 
people of California so wealthy that they can afford this waste and 
inefficiency when the money now being expended in a hit or miss 
fashion, handled at a centralized bureau by experts could give far more 
material and far better material or a much smaller sum could give the 
present service? 

Is it not now time to act? 

Endorsements of Educational Motion Picture Work 

"In almost every subject in the curricula of schools, colleges and 
universities, the cinematograph has already lent valuable aid. Within 
the next decade the moving pictures will be the indispensable adjunct 
of every teacher and educational lecturer. * * * As the attention and 
interest of educators are more and more drawn to its merits, the future 
usefulness of the educational cinematograph bids fair to surpass the 
predictions of its most sanguine advocates." — Extract from the Depart- 
ment of the Interior, Bureau of Education, Report of June 30, 1913. 

"My plan in brief, is to put a motion picture apparatus in every 
school house — particularly in every county school house — in the State, 
and to supply every district with educational films of all kinds, selected 
and distributed by the State Board of Education. 

"The films would travel about over the state like a great circulating 
library, and they would have an educational and economic advantage 
over a circulating library in the fact that they would present informa- 
tion in a form more easily and quickly grasped, and at a less expense, 
taking into account the vastly greater number of people benefited. 

"It is obvious that the country schools and country neighborhoods 
where the facilities for entertainment and contact with the outside 
world are few, would get a larger relative benefit from the operation 
of this plan than would the city schools. And for that reason I would 
make a special effort to put the motion picture service at the disposal 
of the country districts at the earliest practicable date. Possibly it 
would go a little way toward making country life more attractive if the 
people of every country district knew that they could see the finest 
motion pictures that art produces, free of charge in their own school 
house every week." — L. E. Chenoweth, while a member of the State 
Board of Education. 

Among hundreds of the well known educators who have so far 
endorsed the idea are: 

Charles W. Elliot, LL.D President Emeritus Harvard University 

Arthur T. Hadley, Ph. D President Yale University 

Andrew D. White, LL.D President Emeritus, Cornell University 

Cyrus Northrop, LL.D President Emeritus Univ. of Minnesota 

George E. Vincent, LL.D President University of Minnesota 

Ernest F. Nichols, LL.D President Dartmouth College 

Henry Lafavour, Ph. D., LL.D President Simmons College 

W. O. Thompson, D.D., LL.D President Ohio State University 

Charles M. Dabney, LL.D President Lfniversity of Cincinnati 

A. R. Hill, LL.D President University of Missouri 

Franklin R. McVey, LL.D President University of N. Dakota 



^TISUAL EDUCATION 



Paul J. Pontius, M.A., M.D ^ Philadelphia 

Wilfred Grenfell, M.D Labrador 

Brown Ayres, Ph. D., LL.D... President University of Tennessee 

S. D. Brooks, LL.D President University of Oklahoma 

A. H. Wilde, Ph. D President University of Arizona 

J. A. Worst, LL.D President North Dakota Agriculture School 

H. M. Bell, LL.D President Drake University 

G. S. Davis, LL.D President Normal College of New York City 

Thomas Fell, Ph. D., D.C.L President University of Maryland 

J. H. Gulliver, Ph. D., LL.D President Rockford College 

R. J. Aley, LL.D President University of Maine 

W. J. Kerr, D. Sc President Oregon State Agriculture School 

E. C. Craighead, LL.D President University of Montana 

T. C. S. Macklem, D.D Pres. Provost Trinity College, Toronto, Canada 

S. J. Chapman, M.A., M. Com Dean Victoria Univ., Manchester, Eng. 

Willard E. Hotchkiss, Ph. D Dean Northwestern University 

C. A. Dunaway, Ph. D President University of Wyoining 

G. R. Hightower, B.S Pres. Mississippi Agr. and Mechan. College 

N. M. Emery, Ph. D Vice-President Lehigh University 

Arthur Holmes, Ph. D Dean Pennsylvania State College 

Among the colleges that have arranged for more or less regular 
work with films are: 

Brown University St. John's College 

University of Michigan Temple University 

University of California Girard College 

Cornell College Alabama Polytechnic Institute 

L^^niversity of Illinois Southern Geographic Society 

Columbia University University of Maryland 

Pennsylvania State College Rockford College 

Lehigh University Case School of Applied Science 

Purdue University North Dakota Agriculture College 

LTniversity of Minnesota LTniversity of Porto Rico 

University of North Dakota Maryland Agriculture College 

LTniversity of Arkansas Texas A. and M. College 

University of Nevada Alexander Hamilton Institute 

University of Maine N. Carolina Col. of A. & M. Arts 

University of Buffalo Mechanical Institute, Rochester 

University of Kansas State College of Washington 

University of Pittsburg Tennessee A. and I. Normal 

University of Cincinnati Georgia School of Technology 

Boston University Southwestern College of Kansas 

University of South Dakota Iowa State College 
Kansas State Agricultural College Hunter College of the City of N. Y. 

University of Alontana University of Louisville 

University of Tennessee Muncie Normal Institute 

Oregon Agricultural College Mount Union Scio College 

American Inst, of Mining Eng. Winthrop Nor. and Indust. College 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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021 781 031 



g VISUAL EDUCATION 



SUMMARY OF VISUAL EDUCATION WORK IN OTHER STATES 

Wisconsin — The Bureau of Visual Instruction, Extension Division, 
University of Wisconsin, organized in January, 1914, handles 15,000 
lantern slides and 75 reels of motion picture film, (76,000 feet). No 
state legislation has been necessary for this work. 

The bureau was organized to make a thorough and systematic studj' 
of various materials that might be legitimately employed in illustrative 
teaching or in illustration through the medium of the eye; to devise and 
organize plans for placing such materials within easy and constant reach 
of all the schools and other social organizations of the state. 

So far the bureau has supplied to each of 140 schools from 70 to 90 
slides and one reel weekly for thirty-five weeks. The total number of 
slides used was 3,000 and of reels, 35-40. By June, 1914, it was estimated 
that the bureau had in use 5,000 slides and 50 reels of film in regular 
circuit work. The material would have cost each school $200 for rental — 
a total of about $30,000. The exhibitions totaled, slides, 420,000 and 
reels of film, 4,500. 

When the work began there were 226 stereopticons and 15 motion 
picture machines or attachments in the schools. The average number 
of slides owned for each stereopticon was only 48. There were 75 schools 
without projection equipemnt that wished to get it if service could be 
assured. There were 195 schools desiring the service. 

Kansas — The Department of General Information, University Ex- 
tension Division, University of Kansas, lends to the schools of the state 
1800 slides and 9 reels of film. As this department is new, the number is 
small, but the University is making additions monthlj'. The Department 
reports the additions this year have almost doubled the equipment. 

New York — The Division of Visual Instruction, Department of 
Education State of New York, organized in 1886 and reorganized in 
1904, supplies lantern slides, photographs and wall pictures for use in 
the schools. It was established by a legislative act creating the depart- 
ment and it receives an annual appropriation which with other funds 
made available gives it $20,000 to $25,000 a year. 

The object of the division is to collect photographic negatives for 
many fields of study and from these to prepare and organize in appro- 
priate classification, lantern slides and photographs; to maintain a collec- 
tion of wall pictures; to circulate these; to approve projection apparatus, 
wall pictures and casts for apportionments from the academic fund for 
purchasing them; to endeavor to determine the educational value of 
visual aids to instruction and to make suggestions for their use where 
opportunity ofifers. 

The equipment collected since the department was burned out in 
1911, consists of new negatives, 2,245; unclassified, 4.631; slides from new 
negatives, 53,123; slides from old collection saved from the fire, 60,000; 
photographs from new negatives, 7,863, and wall pictures, 550. 

In 1912 the department showed 82.313 slides; in 1913, 140,866; in 1914. 
220,000. The increase in use had been mostly in formal instruction work. 

The cost to the schools is negligible. A shipment of 80-90 slides 
from Albany to Syracuse and return costs by express, 68 cents or by 
parcel post 58 cents. Five thousand slides sent in monthly shipments 
of 500 each for ten months cost less than $20 — the purchase cost of 
20 to 50 slides. 



From P. H. S. Printing Department. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




021 781 031 



HoUinger Corp. 



